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Suffolk to the Pros: Steve Matz

It was a relatively quick rise to fame for local star Steve Matz. The lifelong Mets fan has had the opportunity to pitch for his hometown team since 2015 and has represented Ward Melville proudly.

Matz, a former Newsday Long Island Player of the Year and Yastrzemski Award winner as the top baseball player in Suffolk County, made his big league debut in June 2015 and was part of the Mets team that won a National League championship and played in the World Series. Not bad for his first glimpse into the majors.

As of April 2017, Matz is 13-8 with a 3.16 ERA for his career. He has one of the highly valued arms in an arsenal of Mets pitchers expected to lead the team over the next few years.

UPDATES: Suffolk in the News

Use this link on the news page of Section XI as an aggregator of the top high school sports news from the region!

APRIL 2017

Suffolk Schools named Scholar-Athlete Teams

The New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) is proud to announce its winter 2017 Scholar-Athlete teams and Individuals. This is the 25th year the NYSPHSAA has conducted the Scholar-Athlete program, sponsored by Pupil Benefits Plan, Inc.

“Congratulations to our member schools and student-athletes,” said Executive Director Robert Zayas. “We continue to be proud of this program which recognizes success in the classroom. We are excited to have the opportunity to expand this program to honor even more students for the academic excellence.”

To be honored as a Scholar-Athlete team at least 75% of a team’s roster grade point average (GPA) must average 90.00 or above. Teams who meet this criteria are honored with a certificate. Individuals on the team who reach a 90.00 GPA are also honored with a NYSPHSAA Scholar-Athlete pin.

Additionally, any individual with a 90.00 or above GPA whose team did not qualify for the team award were eligible to receive pins and are considered an Individual Scholar-Athlete. This winter there were 29,523 Individual Scholar-Athletes and a total of 2,050 teams who received the Scholar-Athlete Team award.

The full list of scholar athlete teams for the 2017 winter season can be found at http://www.nysphsaa.org/Educational-Programs/Scholar-Athletes.

Webster, Cinelli, Goehring, Prato honored by NYSAAA

We are so incredibly proud of four amazing individuals from Section XI who were inducted to the New York State Athletic Administrators Association Hall of Fame last week in Saratoga Springs.

Current Section XI Executive Director, Don Webster, along with former Executive Director, former Brentwood athletic director, Chuck Goehring, and former Commack athletic director, Doug Prato.

(Note: Current Brentwood athletic director Kevin O’Reilly is pictured with Webster (r.) and Cinelli (c.) above)

Suffolk to the Pros: Mike James

Mike James played nearly 600 games in the NBA from 2001 through 2014. Undrafted out of Duquesne, the Amityville High alum averaged 9.9 points per game throughout his career.

Just prior to signing his first NBA contract with the Miami Heat in 2001, James played professionally in France and Austria.

James had many stops across multiple NBA cities, including Boston, Detroit, Milwaukee, Houston, Toronto, Minnesota, New Orleans, Washington, Chicago and Dallas.

Perhaps his most fruitful stay was with Detroit in 2004 when he was a reserve member of their championship team.

His best individual season, however, was with the Raptors in 2005-2006 when he averaged career highs with 20.3 points, 5.8 assists and 3.3 rebounds per game. He also shot 44.2 percent from three-point range, one of the top marks in the league.